Saturday, October 06, 2012

Robert Vadra Nehru Gandhi

Robert Vadra, the illustrious son-in-law of Sonia Gandhi is a director alongwith his mother in a few private companies. These companies have been given interest-free loans and sold land properties at deeply discounted prices by DLF Ltd. These facts are proven by information in the public domain thanks to the efforts of Arvind Kejriwal. (These allegations have since been denied by DLF.)

If the normal logic applied in the case of the erstwhile minister A.Raja and Kalaignar TV before arresting Raja and Kanimozhi and in the case of erstwhile minister Dayanidhi Maran and Sun TV before seeking Maran's resignation, is relevant in the case of Robert Vadra, there is a prima facie case of bribery against Vadra also. DLF is alleged to have received favourable treatment from the state governments of Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan where the writ of Sonia Gandhi and therefore Vadra is supreme and cannot be disobeyed. ( Governments of Haryana and Delhi have now denied these allegations.)

However in our democracy what applies to ordinary mortals does not apply to any member born or brought into the Gandhi family. Sonia Gandhi has issued a fiat to all ministers to defend Vadra. The Law Minister shamelessly argues that it is his duty to defend the Congress President as if he need not uphold the laws of the land. (Manish Tewari, a Congress spokesperson has rubbished the allegations and has categorically ruled out any investigation. What is there to investigate, he wants to know!) In a strange observation, Chidambaram has let it be known that he is not commenting on "rightness or wrongness" of transactions.

Robert Vadra has proved to be worthy of belonging to the first family of the Congress party. He deserves to be called Robert Vadra Nehru Gandhi.

BJP ought to be ashamed that even though it is the principal opposition party in the country, it is not able to unearth such corrupt practices. We are let down by both the ruling and opposition parties.

Arvind Kejriwal has characterised the denial of DLF as lies and half-truths. But he has not clarified why.